If you were raised in a Christian household, you have probably heard the phrase, “Christmas is about giving, not receiving” or some variation thereof at least once in your life, whether from you mom or dad, your grandmother or grandfather, or even a particularly stern shopping mall Santa rebuking your extensive wish list. This quip should remind us of the true meaning of Christmas; it directs us towards generosity and way from greed. And don’t get me wrong, we should absolutely exhibit a spirit of generosity during Advent and Christmas, especially towards the less fortunate. Being less greedy is always a good thing. However, if we focus only on what we give, then we allow ourselves to forget Who we receive. On Christmas we celebrate the reception of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, God incarnate, into our fallen, physical world. Christmas is about the gift we receive from God, not the gifts we give others.
However, this begs the questions: What is the proper response to God’s generosity? How can we even begin to respond to a gift so great as God Himself?
Let me begin by undermining my initial point a tad here – we can, and should, respond to God’s generosity by exhibiting generosity ourselves. God made us in His image and likeness, and so we should, to the best of our ability, imitate Him. By giving to others out of love, we imitate His great gift of Himself. This imitation, though far from parity with God, shows our gratitude. This idea is intuitive to us as humans; it is why we exchange gifts on Christmas, not only receive. Though a freely given gift requires no response, and certainly God does not force us to respond to His gift with gratitude, we might feel ungrateful, or be seen as ungrateful by others, if we do not return the favor. Giving a gift back to someone shows that we value the gift they gave us. Similarly, by using the generosity for which God has given us the capability, we show that we value His complete generosity epitomized in the Incarnation.
Well, doesn’t this invalidate the whole point of my reflection? Yeah, sort of – I wanted a catchy title. But in all honesty, even in my discussion of generosity, I could not escape connecting it to gratitude. And gratitude is our proper disposition in the act of receiving. However, our generosity is only one facet of our gratitude for God’s gift. Gratitude extends beyond our generosity, and so there is still some merit to the thesis of this article. In fact, there is a great danger in believing our gratitude for God is expressed fully in giving things to others.
The hymn “Veni, Veni Emmanuel,” I believe, illumines the nature of true gratitude. The hymn itself is an adaptation of the “O Antiphons” recited during Vespers on the days leading up to Christmas. The “O Antiphons” in turn are taken from the Book of Isaiah, in which Isaiah prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. These antiphons each express a name for Christ preceded by an exclamatory “O.” We see Christ named as, “Sapientia (wisdom),” “Adonai (Lord),” “Radix Jesse (root of Jesse), “Clavis David (Key of David),” “Oriens (dawn),” “Rex Gentium (King of the Gentiles),” and finally “Emmanuel (God is with us).” In the hymn, these various titles are prefaced by the verb, “veni,” literally meaning “(you) come.” Because this verb is in the imperative mood, we understand this as a command, like a mother might tell her child “go to sleep,” or a father might say, “do your homework.” But, who are we to order Christ to come to us? What does this tell us about gratitude?
Firstly, as we name Christ in His various attributes, we proclaim that we know something about Him and what He came to accomplish. This shows us that to be properly grateful to God, we must know about His gift. We must know who Christ is. We must know why Christ took upon Himself a human nature and was born of the Virgin Mary. We must know why he suffered, died, and rose from the dead. This concept – knowledge of the gift being necessary for our gratitude – is apparent to us. If you open a box on Christmas morning, and see something inside which you know nothing about, can you be grateful for it? No, of course not. It is through knowing what a gift is and what it is for that we can appreciate it, and through appreciating it, we can be grateful that it was given to us. Similarly, we cannot be truly grateful to God if we do not know His gift. So, a call to gratitude is also a call to study – study of God’s commandments, study of God’s revelation, etc.
Secondly, as we “command” Christ to come, we exercise our confidence and reveal our enthusiasm for His arrival, the former allowing us to experience true gratitude, the latter a sign of our appreciation. We are only able to issue a “command” to Christ, per se, because we know what we order is in accordance with God’s will. We ourselves are not the ones who decide whether Christ comes or not, but we are sure that we echo the will of the Father to send the Son. And, not only do we express confidence in the belief that Christ has come and will come again, but confidence that we are ready to celebrate this sacred holiday and to experience His Second Coming. We would not bid Christ to come to us if we were not prepared, so it is through the preparation of our souls that we can be truly confident in the coming of Christ. Indeed, the whole season of Advent is a season of preparation. Insofar as we desire to be grateful for God’s gift, we have a duty to prepare ourselves for his coming, whether through the Sacrament of reconciliation, through our personal penances, and through our prayer. This confidence which we gain through our due diligence then gives rise to enthusiasm. Because we are sure of Christ’s coming, and we are sure that we are prepared for it, we become excited for it. Our enthusiasm is a sign not only of our confidence, but also of our gratitude which arises from it. Just as our excitement for a gift we open on Christmas morning reveals our gratitude for the gift, so too does the enthusiasm we experience for Christ’s coming reveal our diligent preparation and our sincere gratitude.
Now, there is a world more of depth to the concept of gratitude than what I have expressed here. But, knowledge of the gift, confidence, and enthusiasm, I think, are an adequate place to start. By developing these virtues, we may practice true gratitude for the coming of our Lord. And, by practicing true gratitude, we respond to the true meaning of Christmas – not the many gifts and donations we give, but the reception of our Savior Jesus Christ into our world and into our hearts. If we make Christmas primarily about what we give, then we may fail to prepare ourselves adequately for His coming. We might begin to think if we give enough presents, then we don’t need to pray; if we donate enough money, then we don’t need to confess our sins. For Christmas is truly about what we receive, or perhaps better put, who we receive. So, let us make sure we are prepared.